What’s the best thing about winning the Canadian Football League’s quarterback pre-sweepstakes this offseason?
This week, when the dinner bell rang on expiring contracts across the league, there was no need to battle over the leftovers at the free-agency table.
No, the Elks have already stuffed themselves by signing two-time Grey Cup winner pivot McLeod Bethel-Thompson. (We can debate the merits of that title another day, as he was never on the field to finish out either of those finals.)
They lured the 35-year-old pivot back to the three-down loop off a one-year hiatus in the USFL with a half-million-dollar one-year contract, landing the biggest whopper left in an ever-shrinking pool of talent seemingly available in the CFL these days, one that is currently inhabited by the likes of Dominique Davis, Jake Dolegala and Matthew Shiltz …
Who is together now?
Oh, do not worry. There are more familiar names. The issue is that they are far too familiar to the double-E, belonging to the already-there, done-thats of Nick Arbuckle, Kai Locksley, and Dakota Prukop. No thanks. We might as well bring back Taylor Cornelius. (Though it would have been intriguing to see how he would have performed under new Elks coach Jarious Jackson.)
But that’s all for free agent quarterbacks. So, whether Bethel-Thompson turns out to be the Elks starter they’re paying him to be, or if explosive Canadian kid Tre Ford fights his way back into the driver’s seat, as he has in his first two seasons, Chris Jones has given himself an opportunity to find out.
Meanwhile, the embattled Elks general manager and head coach shifted his focus to another source of concern on his roster — though, to be fair, Jones & Co. shaped up as well as any team entering free agency this year, if not better.
And that’s saying a lot for a team that has yet to escape the West Division’s basement suite, which Jones took over two seasons ago.
No amount of lipstick could cover up the glaring hole that has been Edmonton’s special teams units, and this was not only true during Jones’ second time with the club. To call the Elks’ return game non-existent would be an understatement. It’s been plain awful.
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